Lau
, |Reported=1923 |Researchers=• William Hichens • Bernard Heuvelmans }}The lau is a river monster reported from and southern . It is said to inhabit various rivers, lakes, and swamps along the White Nile, including the Bahr al 'Arab, the Bahr al Ghazal, the Bahr al Zeraf, and the Bahr al Jabal. Description The lau is generally described as a serpentine animal with legs. Accounts of its size vary greatly, from 40' to 100' long; as large as a donkey or a horse; or only 12' long, shorter than a python. It is said to be brown or dark yellow in colour, with a snakelike head displaying a 3'' long crest like that of a crowned crane. Some eyewitnesses say that four bones united by a membrane can be seen around its mouth, whilst others say it has barbels like a catfish. It has a loud, booming call which is often heard in the night, and its stomach makes loud gurgling sounds "like the typical after-dinner rumble of a herd of elephants",Hichens, William, "African Mystery Beasts" Discovery 18 (1937) especially in the rainy season. It lives in holes in the riverbank, and leaves furrows in swampy ground. It is said to take people and cattle. Physical evidence Artifacts Captain William Hichens was shown a native carving of a lau's head, a photograph of which he published in Discovery. Sightings Undated In the time of "a well known telegraph inspector" who held the rank of Bimbashi, a lau was killed near Raub, at a village called Bogga. A Belgian administrator at Rejaf saw a lau in a swamp and fired at it several times, but his bullets had no effect. circa 1880's or 1890's A 40' lau was allegedly observed near Waw in the Sudan sometime in the late 19th Century. 1914 In 1914, the complete skeleton of a lau was supposedly retrieved from the Bahr al Zeraf, and its bones were distributed amongst the natives as charms. A man named Sergeant Stephens was given some neck bones from these natives. He sent the bones to Deputy-Governor Jackson, who in turn sent them to the British Museum for identification, but "no satisfactory explanation was given". circa late 1910's A few years after the recovery of the skeleton from the Bahr al Zeraf, a 12' lau was reportedly seen in the same location. 1918 The gurgling of a lau's stomach was allegedly heard from the Bahr al 'Arab in 1918. Theories The marbled lungfish (Protopterus aethiopicus) is native to the African Great Lakes and their marginal swamps, including Lake No, and may grow to longer than 6': an oversized specimen could potentially explain the lau, though it has neither barbels nor a crest. Alternatively, it has been suggested that the lau may be a composite animal made by the mistaken lumping together of several different dangerous aquatic animals, or that the very term "lau" is in fact a generic term for any elongate aquatic animal - including the Nile bichir (Polypterus bichir), eel catfish (Channallabes apus and Gymnallabes typus), North African catfish (Clarias gariepinus), and vundu (Heterobranchus longifilis) - which has been misinterpreted as a single animal. Bernard Heuvelmans speculated that the lau could be a giant catfish (family Siluridae), a theory consistent with its general shape and barbels. Additionally, certain catfish species are amphibious, crawling onto land during the night, and the dorsal fin might be mistaken for a crest. Although they have no vocal cords, they are capable of generating a growling noise, consistent with the lau's rumbling. The African catfish reaches only about 5' 7'' in length, and the Nilotic electric catfish 5' 1'', but species elsewhere, such as the Wells catfish (Siluris glanis), may grow up to 10', and even larger catfish have been reported across the world, being cryptids in their own right. An alternative explanation is an aquatic variety of the African rock python (Python sebae), which frequently grows up to 33' long. They are often found in swampy regions near rivers and lakes, but are not frequently observed to swim. An aquatic version could explain the serpentine lau. Similar cryptids Bernard Heuvelmans suggested that the lau could be the same kind of animal as the lukwata and the nyama, and Roy P. Mackal suggests a connection with the nguma-monene. It has also sometimes been included in the list of mokele-mbembe-like "long-necked reptiles" which have been speculated to be living sauropods. Notes and references Category:Cryptids Category:Africa Category:South Sudan Category:River monsters Category:River & lake monsters of the Nile system Category:Theory: Mistaken identity lungfish Category:Theory: Mistaken identity catfish Category:Theory: New catfish species Category:Theory: New snake species Category:Historical - Modern Category:No recent sightings Category:Sudan